Tim Ludwig Safety Blog | Safety-Doc.com | Timothy Ludwighttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/
enThu, 19 May 2016 15:17:36 -0400http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rssSandvox 2.10.6Are there Gaps in your Safety System?http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/are-there-gaps-in-your.html
<div class="article-summary"><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Optima; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><em>It may be time to build some elegant safety processes that look behind the wall and walk the catwalk. </em></span>
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</p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal">I must admit that I’ve been captivated, like many fans of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shawshank_Redemption">Shawshank Redemption</a>, with the escape and ultimate recapture of prisoners at the Clinton Correctional Facility in upper New York State. The methodical nature of prisoner David Sweat, incarcerated for the murder of a deputy sheriff, toiling in secret to escape has to be a cautionary tale to those of us working to keep injury at bay.
</p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal">It took months for Mr. Sweat to saw through the back of his cell and ultimately into an outbound pipe in the depths of the prison to escape. He hid his progress by working at night through a camouflaged hole in the back of his cell. His accomplice lied to other prisoners about the noise made while sawing (he was “stretching canvases”). They would walk quietly behind the walls on catwalks hunting for paths to underground service pipes that would lead under the prison walls to freedom. Both would change into dirty work clothes at night then hide them before changing back into their prison jumpsuits for normal daily activities.
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Thu, 20 Aug 2015 15:26:07 -0400http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/are-there-gaps-in-your.htmlLabeling is Easy: Dig Deeper to Change Behaviorhttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/labeling-is-easy-dig-deeper.html
<div class="article-summary"><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Optima;"> <em>Folks, dig deeper. The labels are artificial. The labels are an illusion. There’s always a reason for the behavior that we get. We can all overcome our Labels!</em></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://eepurl.com/bOuGOj">Subscribe to our newsletter</a><span style="font-family: Optima;"><em><br /></em></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Optima;"><img src="http://safety-doc.com/_Media/clip_image002-12_med.png" alt="" width="434" height="246" class="first" /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: Optima;">It’s quite easy</span> <span style="font-family: Optima;">to give ourselves a label, isn’t it? We look at our behavior, and we look at how it affects others, and we give ourselves a label. I live up in the mountains of North Carolina and drive back roads all the time. Last summer I was driving in a city, was looking around at the unfamiliar surroundings, and drove right under the traffic light into an intersection. Just in case I wasn’t aware of my error, a guy in a big Bronco SUV blasted his horn and pulled beside me staring angrily. I looked at him and pointed to my head and mouthed “Stupid”. He seemed to agree and the confrontation was over. I had interpreted my own behavior with a label, “Stupid”, and that simple adjective seemed appropriate.</span>
</p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Optima;">In fact, labeling is quite popular in modern business where management training often involves some personality test like the MBTI where we learn everyone’s label in hopes of better collaboration. “I’m an Introvert which explains my discomfort working in big teams.” “I’m a Judger which explains why I’m so critical.” Somehow these labels seem to be the magic elixir that make business work better. But they don’t. Everyone goes back to the same environment and acts the same way, nothing changes.</span></p></div>
Mon, 27 Apr 2015 10:34:32 -0400http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/labeling-is-easy-dig-deeper.htmlIts Not My Carhttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/its-not-my-car.html
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</div><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://eepurl.com/bOuGOj" target="_blank">Subscribe to our newsletter</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">I get asked to visit companies and diagnose why their behavioral safety program has “lost steam” or never got off the ground to begin with. Inevitably, I find the whole program is run by the safety department and few anointed safety enthusiasts who do the observations or supervisors, who have observations cards to complete on top of mounds of other paperwork. Employee involvement is nonexistent. This may seem the most reliable way to do behavioral safety, but it’s creating an undesirable effect inside of the operation.
</p><p class="MsoNormal">I got a story for you that will make this point.
</p><p class="MsoNormal">I was in a rush. My flight was an hour late arriving in Chicago and I had a 40-minute drive to get to a safety speech I was giving that was an hour away. And, I still had to pick up my rental car - so I was stressing as I got off the huge rental car company shuttle bus. With rental papers in hand I found the car on the lot, put on my safety belt and headed for the exit.
</p><p class="MsoNormal">This was no easy task. The massive labyrinth of a parking lot was segmented with roads and I had to trust that the “exit <span style="font-family: Wingdings;">à</span>” signs would get me out to civilization. After a number of turns I finally drove up to a “T” intersection. The exit booth was to the right of me and beyond that was freedom. I eased into the right lane to yield and turn right. But I had to stop because one of those huge airport shuttle buses (scientific name <em>TryceraBus</em>) covered with the rental car company’s logo had the right of way as it passed ahead of me toward the exit.
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Tue, 10 Mar 2015 16:00:35 -0400http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/its-not-my-car.htmlBelow Zero Injurieshttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/below-zero-injuries.html
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</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(26, 26, 26);">“<em>Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best</em>.” </span></p>
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</div><p class="MsoNormal">Your annual injury rate is a static number. It can define your safety program performance but injury rates can seem random. It’s frustrating working so hard to reduce that rate only to have it bounce around arbitrarily.
</p><p class="MsoNormal">That <em>Zero Harm</em> goal on all the posters may seem insurmountable. A more fruitful path is to get to the numbers behind the number… a path to get you <em>below zero</em>. Let’s learn how some companies achieve Below Zero…
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><u>Best-in-practice Behavioral Safety Programs</u></p><p class="MsoNormal">One of the cool things I get to do is work with the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies (CCBS). CCBS is a not-for-profit organization whose mission it is to reduce human suffering through the application of behavioral science. Applications of behavioral science have impact on people (and animals) through work in autism and human services, in schools and prisons, attacking violence and encouraging volunteering, and, of course, increasing safe behaviors in the workplace. Check us out (<a href="http://behavior.org">behavior.org</a>).
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Thu, 05 Feb 2015 15:08:42 -0500http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/below-zero-injuries.htmlComplacency shouldn’t be your Exit Strategyhttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/complacency-shouldnt-be.html
<div class="article-summary"><p class="MsoNormal"><em>Taken as a whole it seems like complacency is pervasive – the #1 cause of injury.</em></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://eepurl.com/bOuGOj" target="_blank">Subscribe to our newsletter</a><em><br /></em></p>
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</div><p class="MsoNormal">“<em>Yeah, I guess I got complacent</em>”. Jack had been working the extruder for years now but this time he failed to recognize a common hazard when he was clearing a blockage. He got lucky injuring only the sleeves of his shirt as the blades regained their motion. When asked Jack, and many others who experience a near miss, use “complacency” as an explanation for their action. Likewise, frustrated managers blame employees for being complacent. Taken as a whole it seems like complacency is pervasive – the #1 cause of injury.
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Common wisdom suggests complacency is built up over time working a process over and over. As the worker comes in contact with the hazards of the job frequently a process called “Habituation” may take over.
</p><p class="MsoNormal"> HABIT (your Habits take over) UATION (the Situation)
</p><p class="MsoNormal">This means that you go on <a href="http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/driving-toward-an-autopilot.html">Autopilot</a> and your ability to notice changes in the hazard, or perhaps your own behavior, fades.
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Tue, 18 Nov 2014 13:08:30 -0500http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/complacency-shouldnt-be.htmlLabor Day Musinghttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/labor-day-musing.html
<div class="article-summary"><p><span style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: 'Big Caslon'; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></p><p><a href="http://eepurl.com/bOuGOj" target="_blank">Subscribe to our newsletter</a></p><p><span style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: 'Big Caslon'; font-size: 14px;">It was three years ago today that I started the Safety-Doc.com blog on Labor Day. I felt it appropriate to celebrate the unparalleled contribution laborers have made to this country, our communities and families.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Big Caslon'; color: rgb(31, 31, 31);">So to all of you who grow your company, community, and country through your labor; to all of you who did it in the past and have taken up the mantel of protector/safety pro; and for all of you who support our laborers -- SALUTE!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Big Caslon'; color: rgb(31, 31, 31);">My original post three years ago… </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: 'Big Caslon'; font-size: 14px;">"</span><span style="font-family: 'Calisto MT'; color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-size: 14px;"><em>In my first safety blog I’m going to reflect on Labor Day. This Labor Day I watched Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero about the group of workers racing to complete the September 11 Memorial by the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 (this weekend). I’m reminded how our laborers have built (and rebuilt) our nation. Throughout the show the featured workers repeatedly were quoted “we have to get this done in time, no alternatives.” Indeed, the six-hour workweeks were reminiscent of the 24-hour work to fix the Pentagon after 9/11. Beyond the focus on the victim’s families, my biggest concern was about the safety of the workers whose self-pressure could put them in harm’s way. Shot of large iron-works and plumbing reinforced that concern. Until I saw a shot of an ironworker breaking a forgotten weld; he was surrounded by a group of his fellow laborers coaching him on the safe execution of the hazardous situation. It was then I celebrated Labor Day</em></span><span style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: 'Big Caslon'; font-size: 14px;">."</span></p></div>
Sun, 31 Aug 2014 18:39:59 -0400http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/labor-day-musing.htmlThe Feedback Sandwich should be a Pizzahttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/the-feedback-sandwich-shoul.html
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</p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://eepurl.com/bOuGOj" target="_blank">Subscribe to our newsletter</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">We’ve all heard about the “feedback sandwich” where it’s recommended that critical feedback should be sandwiched by positive feedback on both sides. This practice has us starting with positive feedback followed by the constructive yet critical feedback that you really wanted to address in the first place. Then the interaction is ended with another dose of positive feedback. The notion is that we protect the ego of the receiver by making them feel good at the beginning of the conversation, then, after we have to bring them down, we build them back up at the end. <img src="http://safety-doc.com/_Media/clip_image004-7_med.png" alt="" width="175" height="117" class="not-first-item" />
</p><p class="MsoNormal">I’ve always felt that this method was a bit contrived, transparent, and confusing putting the receiver at risk for mental whiplash and leaving them wondering what the whole point was.
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Regardless, those of us who study and teach behavioral science often are asked the best way to give feedback. It's a good question because one of the most powerful behavioral tools is feedback. It is also one of the most studied techniques in behavioral science as we apply it to organizations.
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Thu, 21 Aug 2014 13:09:00 -0400http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/the-feedback-sandwich-shoul.htmlPull the Domino and Build your Safety Culturehttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/pull-the-domino-and-build.html
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</p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://eepurl.com/bOuGOj" target="_blank">Subscribe to our newsletter</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">My Mom’s family in Texas were big dominoes fans. When I visited as a lad, Grandpa would come from the day at the ranch, grab a beer, and play dominoes with Grandma and Mom and Dad. I remember his big hands holding all seven dominoes in one hand as they played “<a href="http://texas42.net/42home.html">Texas 42</a>”.
</p><p class="MsoNormal">As kids, my brothers and I would take the dominoes and make up our own games. All kids with porcelain tiles probably shared these same games. The first was the cascading tumble of dominoes lined up optimally an inch apart. We would try to line up as many as possible in as many interesting patterns as we could. But we never got as extravagant as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXtDChNB3gc">this example</a>.
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Heinrich asserted nearly 75 years ago, ““88% of worker injuries are due to the worker’s unsafe act”. He proposed a <a href="http://www.ilo.org/oshenc/part-viii/accident-prevention/item/894-theory-of-accident-causes">Safety Domino Theory</a> that suggested the worker’s ancestry and social upbringing (first domino) led to being at fault (second) which led to an unsafe act (third) which led to accident (forth) and injuries (the last domino to fall). Heinrich was an insurance investigator. He certainly didn’t understand behavior, which he blamed for injuries.
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Wed, 02 Jul 2014 14:48:55 -0400http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/pull-the-domino-and-build.htmlSafety is NOT a Verb… but it should behttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/safety-is-not-a-verb-but-it.html
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</div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://eepurl.com/bOuGOj" target="_blank" style="">Subscribe to our newsletter</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal">It may seem ironic that a guy (me) who speaks and writes for a living hated English classes as a lad. My English grades would attest that I didn’t like English and it didn’t like me. What I remember disliking the most was the task of outlining a sentence structure. We had to take a sentence and place arrows to note the nouns and verbs and participles and adjectives and conjunctions and adverbs and other autocracies of school teachers trying to insert cognitive worms whose purpose was to root out a young kid’s freedom to split infinitives and worse, end a sentence with a pronoun!
</p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal">I guess at one point I found words and sentences to be useful enough to begin to try to use them to communicate what was inside my head. After all, what good is it being opinionated if you keep it to yourself? And, to be honest, it took an old English major named Scott Geller to pound my sloppy, run-on sentences into a semblance of proper shape.
</p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal">With more experience traveling around in the real world seeing safety programs in action (or inaction) I realized that <em>words matter</em>. They not only communicate but they can shape the very approach you take to your safety programming. They can get you stuck or they can liberate your safety culture.
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Tue, 29 Apr 2014 12:37:15 -0400http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/safety-is-not-a-verb-but-it.htmlBlow your own Hornhttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/blow-your-own-horn.html
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</div><p><a href="http://eepurl.com/bOuGOj" target="_blank">Subscribe to our newsletter</a></p><p>One of my clients in South Africa (ZA) instituted a <a href="http://safetyperformance.com/" target="_blank">People Based Safety (PBS)</a> program about 4 years back. As you recall this was the time the Football (soccer) World Cup was hosted by ZA in 2010. The Vuvuzela, a plastic horn that produces a loud bellowing sound, is a common noise-making tool for football spectators in ZA and the intensity of its use in the 2010 World Cup was impossible to miss. There were estimates that Vuvuzela use exceeded 120 dB during matches.<br /><br />In one of the mine construction locations in the east of the country the PBS team were looking for ways to increase observations. Obviously the World Cup was on everyone's mind in this football-loving country. So the employees on the PBS team decided to use the ubiquitous horn in their campaign. <br /><br />Here's how it worked. At random intervals during the work shift a PBS team member would blow a Vuvuzela whose high bellow you could hear throughout the site. When the Vuvuzela was sounded, everyone who safely could stopped work and did a behavioral safety observation on themselves or someone close to them. They were also encouraged to get a drink of fluid and adjust any PPE or guards. Turning in the observation cards was optional.<br /><br />In that year, this site had the highest reduction of injuries of any project in the company's history.
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Thu, 27 Feb 2014 08:43:04 -0500http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/blow-your-own-horn.htmlThe Checklist Manifestedhttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/the-checklist-manifested.html
<div class="article-summary"><a href="http://eepurl.com/bOuGOj" target="_blank">Subscribe to our newsletter</a><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: Optima;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14px; font-family: Optima;">Build them Curiously Strong</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><em>If checklists are to be effective as behavior-management tools, you must manage the behavior of using checklists!</em></p>
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</div><p class="MsoNormal"><em> </em></p><p class="MsoNormal">Today is the day our family vacation is to begin. We have so much to remember: Take the pets to their hotel; go to the bank; take out the trash; pack power cords, prescriptions, underwear; turn down the heat; make sure my 18 year-old brings his ID to the airport this time… the list continues. We know that once we’re on the road we’ll realize we forgot something. Wondering what we’re forgetting while we’re forgetting can be maddening.
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Recently, before taking any trip, I’ve adopted a good habit of making a list on my iPhone and checking off each item as soon as it is accomplished. When I am disciplined enough to do this, I tend to be a happier and more successful traveler.
</p><img src="http://safety-doc.com/_Media/71cwwicjhul_med.jpeg" alt="71CwWiCJhuL" width="106" height="158" class="not-first-item narrow right graphic-container" /><p class="MsoNormal">The simple checklist has gotten a lot of press recently. A couple years back, Atul Gawande put out his popular <em>Checklist Manifesto</em> that described the use of checklists in the operating room and arguing that this marvelous tool can be used to reduce injuries, quality errors, and perhaps even travel forgetfulness. On the wave of checklist mania also rides a group of former military pilots who call themselves <em>Check Six</em>. They make a strong case for preparing very precise checklists that allow for quite amazing, yet safe gravity defying feats. I’d be willing to wager that there are a dozen more groups marketing their particular take on checklists.
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Wed, 12 Feb 2014 16:51:33 -0500http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/the-checklist-manifested.htmlGone Fish'n: The Measurement Illusionhttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/gone-fishn-the-measurement.html
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</p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://eepurl.com/bOuGOj" target="_blank" style="">Subscribe to our newsletter</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Big Caslon';">The measurement revolution began in my prime. I was working with Industrial Engineers, a nice bunch, with the world-view that everything can be designed to run smoothly. We were a part of the Quality Revolution. I had just gone to see W. Edwards Deming for the third time…about how long it took to pound in my head one of his mantras: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Big Caslon';">Deming was a statistician who, like myself, saw the world in terms of variance. We don’t look at absolutes, we look at differences. Therefore, when viewing injury data I look for change over time, variation across work units, comparisons to industry top quartile, and the like. Within the groups of numbers, quite interesting and actionable sources of variation lie. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Big Caslon';">When someone gets injured many look at the investigation for answers as to what to change. All well &amp; good. But what about the dozens of stories, the dozens of variations in human and machine behavior that, if measured, would have revealed a basis for action <em>before the injury</em>? A good measurement system can save a world of hurt…literally.</span></p></div>
Mon, 06 Jan 2014 15:36:58 -0500http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/gone-fishn-the-measurement.htmlRudolph the Safety Engineerhttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/rudolph-the-safety-engineer.html
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</div><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://eepurl.com/bOuGOj" target="_blank">Subscribe to our newsletter</a><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 18px;">You know Smasher and Cancer and Prancer and Vixen, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Casual;">Vomit and Stupid and Yawner and Prohabition. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Casual;">But do you recall?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Casual;">The most famous Safety Engineer of all?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">Rudolph the safety engineer</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">Had some very shiny clothes.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">He wears them so you can see him</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">Much better than plain clothes.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">And all of the other Managers </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">Used to bitch and call him names. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">They never let poor Rudolph </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">Join in any Manager games.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">Then one foggy Turnover Eve</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">The GM came to say,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">Rudolph with your clothes so bright,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">Don’t let anyone get hurt tonight.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">They all did extra observations</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">and pointed out what they see,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">and their operations</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">had a turnover with no injury!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">Then all the managers loved him</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;"> As they shouted out with glee,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">“Rudolph, this injury free turnover, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;">Will go down in history!”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;"><img src="http://safety-doc.com/_Media/0clip_image004_med.jpeg" alt="" width="277" height="185" class="not-first-item" /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;"> Merry Christmas!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Casual; font-size: 14px;"> Safety-Doc.com</span></p>
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Mon, 23 Dec 2013 10:35:12 -0500http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/rudolph-the-safety-engineer.htmlBe the Change - Nelson Mandelahttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/be-the-change---nelson.html
<div class="article-summary"><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://eepurl.com/bOuGOj" target="_blank">Subscribe to our newsletter</a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Big Caslon';">I had been warmly welcomed to South Africa. We were there to work with a mining construction company who wanted to solve their safety challenge. The immensity of this challenge hit us on our day off while we dealt with our jet lag. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><img src="http://safety-doc.com/_Media/0clip_image002-12_med.png" alt="" width="215" height="282" class="first narrow left graphic-container" /><span style="font-family: 'Big Caslon';">We took a tour of Soweto outside of Johannesburg. Soweto is where a student uprising and the deadly crackdown by the white police enraged the world and marked the beginning of the end of Apartheid. I recalled wearing black and white armbands in college protesting Apartheid. But when face-to-face with the peoples, places, and cultures I knew the time had come to go beyond a youthful ideal.</span>
</p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Big Caslon';">I was humbled to be training dedicated people who would go to the mines and help put into place the processes and principles of behavioral safety toward a culture of Actively Caring. I had Zulus, Afrikaans, British descendants, Zimbabweans, and others of the great African diversity in the room -- executives through construction laborers. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Big Caslon';">While we were discussing the concept of Actively Caring I was pulled aside during the break. “You must understand… we are not a caring culture.” I guess I refused to believe this statement. Yes, in their recent history they treated each other with less than human respect. Yes there was vigilante violence on all sides during the chaotic times as Apartheid fell. </span></p></div>
Fri, 06 Dec 2013 09:28:44 -0500http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/be-the-change---nelson.htmlThe Fear "Work-Around"http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/the-fear-work-around.html
<div class="article-summary"><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://eepurl.com/bOuGOj" target="_blank">Subscribe to our newsletter</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">How to get better reporting
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><img src="http://safety-doc.com/_Media/0clip_image002-11_med.png" alt="" width="434" height="326" class="first" />
</p><p class="MsoNormal">The most effective individual in your company may be the employee safety committee member who has gained not only your trust but has done the miraculous job of bringing together the often-bickering functions of your organization. They can bring together union and management like my dear friend Tim Meier at Marathon Refining. They can bring together maintenance and operations, no small feat. And they can drive out fear the way Charlie Daniels beat the Devil out of his fiddle (sorry to my international readers, a inside U.S. joke there but I need it for the following paragraph).
</p><img src="http://safety-doc.com/_Media/0clip_image004-15_med.png" alt="" width="208" height="166" class="not-first-item narrow right graphic-container" /><p class="MsoNormal">FEAR is the Devil of safety programs just like TRUST is the human SAINT (I personally prefer Saint Francis). If your team had open, honest reporting of hazards and risks you’d be able to target your team’s considerable brainpower into butt-kicking solutions… but you don’t… dang that devil (PG version).
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Its absolutely true that management actions can reduce fear, but as any leader trying to change a culture knows, you need those small wins to reinforce the trust your workforce can demonstrate when they open up and start to report. You need the Fear-Buster (“Who-ya Gonna Call?”…. Sorry, another U.S. analogy).
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Wed, 16 Oct 2013 16:44:24 -0400http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/the-fear-work-around.htmlThe Rule Millhttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/the-rule-mill.html
<div class="article-summary"><a href="http://eepurl.com/bOuGOj" target="_blank">Subscribe to our newsletter</a><p class="MsoNormal"><em><br /></em></p><p class="MsoNormal"><em>Rules, they are so easy to make. So easy that safety offices are often accused of being a “Rule Mill” because they continuously produce their rule-of-the month. </em></p><p class="MsoNormal">As easy as rules are to make they are just as hard to enforce. Rules are designed to keep us safe and are made by well-meaning folks thinking through potential risks in the face of hazards. Rules are good for all of us… so why do people break the rules when those rules are there to protect them? I guess the more pertinent question is “how do we get people to follow the rules?”
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><img src="http://safety-doc.com/_Media/0clip_image002-10_med.png" alt="" width="370" height="125" class="first" />
</p><p class="MsoNormal">A good friend of mine and I were traveling around the world assessing the safety culture of mining sites within a gold mining company. We saw a lot of variance between one site and another within this company but one consistent finding was that the “mill” always had the worst safety record associated with the most challenged safety culture.
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><img src="http://safety-doc.com/_Media/0clip_image004-14_med.png" alt="" width="223" height="169" class="not-first-item narrow left graphic-container" />For those of you unacquainted with mining, there are two main areas of operation. You have the folks that drive big trucks down into holes that have been dug out through explosives and shovels. You can literally see the hazards as you ride down into these pits and respect the rules that keep you from being buried, crushed, or otherwise blown to bits. After the earth is exposed, dug, and brought to the surface it is dropped on a conveyer and carried to the mill where huge grinding machines tear up the rock until its processed into the end product. So the mill consists mostly of operators and maintenance folks doing dirty loud work. And brother, when equipment in the mill goes down, all production stops and there is hell to pay.
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Thu, 05 Sep 2013 15:04:13 -0400http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/the-rule-mill.htmlHow I Learned Safety from my Sonhttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/how-i-learned-safety-from.html
<div class="article-summary"><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><img src="http://safety-doc.com/_Media/0clip_image002.gif" alt="" width="183" height="259" class="first narrow right graphic-container" />
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://eepurl.com/bOuGOj" target="_blank">Subscribe to our newsletter</a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/safety-stories---free/video--safety-kidz.html" style="text-decoration: underline; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(46, 29, 0);">SEE DR. LUDWIG'S VIDEO ON THIS STORY!</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">“It’s just my bad luck to have a dad that’s a safety geek” my son exclaimed. “I don’t do ‘vert’ where kids fly up in the air and try to land back on the ramp. I do ‘ground boarding’ like when I make the board jump and flip then try to land on it”
</p><p class="MsoNormal">“And I always wear my helmet”.
</p><p class="MsoNormal">My son was right. He did always wear his helmet skateboarding (he had been wearing his helmet snow skiing since he was 3) while many of the kids at the skate park don’t wear the protective gear.
</p><p class="MsoNormal">The issue between my oldest son and his safety-consultant dad had to do with wearing elbow and knee pads. His grandmother had lovingly gotten him these pads from Goodwill, but he said he stopped wearing them because they were too small and “looked stupid”. So I bought him brand new ones from the coolest skate store in our county. I thought, “Problem solved”.
</p><p class="MsoNormal">So you can imagine how I felt when I drove up the driveway and saw him doing his boarding with no pads.
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Sun, 18 Aug 2013 11:34:30 -0400http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/how-i-learned-safety-from.htmlSafety is NOT your Jobhttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/safety-is-not-your-job.html
<div class="article-summary"><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><img src="http://safety-doc.com/_Media/clip_image002-7_med.png" alt="" width="158" height="221" class="first narrow right graphic-container" />
</p><a href="http://eepurl.com/bOuGOj" target="_blank">Subscribe to our newsletter</a><p style="font-size: 21px;"><br /></p><p style="font-size: 21px;"><em>its what you do because you're human.</em></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal">I was in an industrial facility speaking with a mix of workers and managers trying to figure out why personal injuries kept cropping up with some regularity. They were a good group who seemed to care about their workers’ safety and seemed to have a lot of respect for the work achieved in a pretty old and dirty plant.
</p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal">I remember being amused by the union steward and the HR director trading jabs within their predictable arguments as we worked through many of the concepts of safety cultures. When we discussed the central concept of reinforcement I was surprised to see both the HR and Union guys team up in disagreement.
</p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal">I was describing that the corrective feedback central to many behavioral safety programs only gets workforces half way to their safety goals. What is badly needed is delivering reinforcement for a tasks safely done. And it doesn’t have to be elaborate, a simple “Thank you…I noticed that you did this and it made us a safer workforce” is powerful. Certainly this is a provocative assertion. As I’ve argued in my <a href="http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/does-your-safety-program.html">“Rebar” article</a>, reinforcement is what makes safe behaviors stronger.
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Thu, 18 Jul 2013 11:14:12 -0400http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/safety-is-not-your-job.htmlLook for the Helpershttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/look-for-the-helpers.html
<div class="article-summary"><p class="MsoNormal"><em>We wish the world would be more like a kid’s show instead of a place of violence such we saw in the needless bombing during the Boston Marathon. </em>
</p><p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><img src="http://safety-doc.com/_Media/clip_image002-6_med.png" alt="" width="216" height="230" class="first" />
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Wholesome, nurturing, recreational events shouldn’t be the stage for tragedies happening right in our neighborhoods.
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://eepurl.com/bOuGOj" target="_blank">Subscribe to our newsletter</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Wouldn’t it be better to live in the neighborhoods devised by Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers? Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood came into our households in 1963 through 2001. There were puppets and trollies, sweaters and songs. But Mr. Rogers did not shy away from the real world and its challenges. His kids’ program dealt with death (of his goldfish), assassinations (John F. Kennedy), divorce, and war.
</p><p class="MsoNormal">His advice is very compelling:
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(19, 19, 19);">“<em>When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping</em>.” </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(19, 19, 19);"> Fred Rogers,</span> <em>The Mister Rogers Parenting Book</em>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(19, 19, 19);">This profound advice has been quoted a lot recently as we’ve confronted tragic events such as the <a href="http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/04/16/in-the-wake-of-the-boston-marathon-attacks-mr-rogers-quote-spreads-hope-across-the-internet/">Boston Marathon Bombings</a> and the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/mister-rogers-and-newtown-quote-and-image-goes-viral/2012/12/17/a462f598-485c-11e2-820e-17eefac2f939_blog.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/mister-rogers-and-newtown-quote-and-image-goes-viral/2012/12/17/a462f598-485c-11e2-820e-17eefac2f939_blog.html">Newtown school massacre</a>. I personally was reminded of it in a <a href="http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/ccb74751-a430-40c6-b232-6bb6583d7fcd.html">political cartoon</a> that had me lost in thought for long moments.</span></p></div>
Wed, 24 Apr 2013 09:56:47 -0400http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/look-for-the-helpers.htmlDriving an Autopilot Toward Situational Awarenesshttp://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/driving-toward-an-autopilot.html
<div class="article-summary"><p class="MsoNormal"><em>The real threat to driving safety is the autopilot we all develop over a lifetime of driving for personal reasons outside of the work setting. </em>
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</div><p class="MsoNormal"> <a href="http://eepurl.com/bOuGOj" target="_blank">Subscribe to our newsletter</a>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">This morning I was a lone worker. I drove my vehicle into work today and did so alone with just my favorite blues station on the radio. I had to be responsible for my own safety. No one was there to alert me to risks (as <a href="http://safety-doc.com/safety-stories---free/for_those_about_to_rock.pdf">my son is so prone to do now</a>) or help me think through the process of navigating hazards. Alternatively, no one was there to distract me from performing the driving task safely. In the end, I got to my office safely. However, I cannot tell you the actions I took to arrive safety. I was on a type of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopilot">autopilot</a>.
</p><p class="MsoNormal">My autopilot helped me drive safely. The Autopilot includes a set of behaviors such as using my safety belt, hugging the blind turns that are abundant in the mountains, maintaining a safe speed for the situation, and stopping when appropriate. Thinking back, I honestly couldn’t tell you if I indeed did those things but I assume I did.
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Wed, 03 Apr 2013 13:30:57 -0400http://safety-doc.com/safety-blogs/blog/driving-toward-an-autopilot.html